


Free To Be

by KatG



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adjusting to being a parent, Bisexual Dean Winchester, Castiel is Claire Novak's Parent, Dead Mary Winchester, Dean Winchester is Ben Braeden's Parent, Dean is a cop, Destiel - Freeform, F/M, Gabriel Rosen, Large complicated family, Lucifer renamed to Lucius, M/M, Openly Bisexual Dean Winchester, Pansexual Castiel, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Probably will include some smut down the line, Sam Winchester Gets A Dog, Sam Winchester Wants a Dog, Slow Burn, They never did a DNA test, castiel is a soldier, dadstiel, didn't forget adam, not of God, omg can't forget that Becky is Gabriel's mom because why the f not
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-23
Updated: 2019-10-22
Packaged: 2020-10-27 02:28:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 7
Words: 13,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20752826
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KatG/pseuds/KatG
Summary: *****Looking for a co-creator btw*****Castiel Shurley’s life is forever changed by his short time in the US Army. Sinister actions he eventually finds his eldest brothers the ringmasters of, he spends almost a decade in witness protection as James Novak.Thanks to Officer Dean Winchester of the Lebanon PD, Castiel is once again free to be himself. However, he soon finds himself in over his head with a daughter and nephew to care for.





	1. Found

**Author's Note:**

> This is a work in progress, I won't be updating regularly at all thanks to being a busy person with a penchant for procrastinating everything.
> 
> My goal is to get to 20 chapters (it might change), I have a few fleshed out but some might be pretty short. I'm not a very consistent person.

It’s six in the morning when Castiel’s phone rings. He almost misses the call, picking up on the final ring as he rushes out of the shower. Before he can even get out a groggy hello the caller is talking.

“Come alone and I’ll let them live.” The voice is instantly recognizable. Zachariah Adler. Castiel’s blood goes cold and for a moment and he wonders if he’s having another nightmare.

“She has your eyes Sergeant Shurley.” Zachariah’s voice is downright sinister coming through the phone, snapping him out of his head, “Might be your only chance to see her alive.”

The line goes dead and a moment later the cell buzzes to signal a text.

Restricted Number: 11pm Geographical Center of the US.

FUCK. He needs to think but this head is just chanting a never ending string of cuss words that would make his mother ashamed. He’d told her to run, as soon as Amelia had told him that she was pregnant, he told her to run. Get as far away as you can and never look book. It wasn’t enough. They still found her. Zachariah had still found them.

Without another thought he throws on the first clothes he sees and pulls himself into his Continental. Shaking fingers Google map the center of the US on his smartphone. 13 hours from Baudette, Minnesota to middle of nowhere Kansas.

**********

“You always were such a hero, weren’t you Sergeant. Your life for theirs without a second thought.” In the dimly lit tourist park, Zachariah stands, hands held behind his back and chest puffing out like he’s already won.

Castiel had pulled up and jumped out of his car as soon as he saw the light blue sedan parked along the curb. Looking that way, he can just make out the shape of his ex-girlfriend sitting in the back driver’s side seat. He doesn’t see Claire, and that thought alone makes his stomach knot up. What if he’s too late?

Zachariah must see something change in his face, because he starts laughing. It’s deep and sickening.

“You know, it’s amazing how fast allergy meds can knock a kid out.”

Castiel steps forward faster, “I swear if you’ve hurt her-”

“Claire. In case you were wondering what your daughter’s name is.” He retorts stepping forward as well, lifting his gun towards Catiel’s head. “Not that it really matters, now does it.”

“Let them go, Zachariah.” A fire inside of him is burning and faster than he logically should, Castiel is closing the distance between them.

“I’ll let them go when you’re good and dead.” Just as Zachariah is pulling back the hammer, sirens sound from all sides. Red and blue lights bathing the dimly lit triangle of ‘park’ and officers are rushing in towards them.

Zachariah tsks his tongue at Castiel, swinging the handgun towards the car and firing off three shots one after the other. The sound of glass breaking, the car alarm, and gunfire echo through the night.

Castiel’s stomach drops as his eyes dart towards the car. The back window is shattered and blood glistens a deep and dark against the light interior as it pours from the holes in Amelia’s head.

“Drop the gun or the next one goes through your heart.” Castiel looks back to Zachariah, down on one knee and wincing in pain as an officer approaches cautiously from a few yards back.

Zachariah raises his gun instead of obeying the orders, this time facing Castiel. Another shot goes off and Zachariah is lying in a heap on the grass. There are officers rushing towards the car, pulling Amelia and Claire out. Years of military training and all Castiel can do is stand and watch as his ex is pronounced dead on the scene.

He doesn’t even notice the officer stepping around Zachariah towards him. Well, he does notice, just doesn’t respond. Ambulances are paradeing towards the scene. EMT’s jumping out to meet the officer holding Claire. HIS Claire.

Pushing right past the officer, Castiel races towards the sedan. He’s got to see her, got to know that she’s okay. But he’s being pulled to a stop with the ambulance still blocking his line of sight.

“Hold up, we can’t let you go over there just yet.” That same officer says.

It’s a wonder Castiel is able to form words with the rate his mind is speeding, “I have to, she’s my daughter.”

“Yours or not, we’ve got two dead bodies and lots of questions.” Castiel turns to face him, how can he not get it? The officer steps closer, patting him almost reassuringly on the back, “Hey, I promise you that your daughter is in good hands. As soon as we’ve got our questions answered we’ll let you see her. Until then, I need you to cooperate, okay?”

“Yes sir.” He responds instinctively.

“Alright, so why don’t you hop in the back of my cruiser and we’ll take you into the station. Unless you’d rather talk here, I’d just rather not get bit by mosquitoes.” The man’s voice is light hearted, like he’s genuinely trying to help. So Castiel just lets him be in charge, no questions asked.

“I’ll go with to the station Officer.”

“The gold car yours?” The officer asks, pointing towards Castiel’s gold Lincoln Contintal.

“Yes sir.”

“Just making sure. If you want, I can have my partner Officer Harvelle drive it up after they deal with the scene. I notice it’s still running so I’d assume the keys are in it.”

“Yes sir, guess I forgot to shut it off.”

*******************

“Call came in from a local kid, said he saw some creepy guy and heard a woman screaming.” The officer sits down across from the metal table, setting down a glass of water in front of Castiel. “We all know he was probably out there selling pot, but he’s not one to cry wolf so we hightailed it over there. Just in time it seems. So, you wanna tell me why you had a gun to your head tonight.”

“That’s a very long story Officer.” Castiel sighs heavily, finding himself incredibly exhausted from everything that’s happened today. 

“I’ve got all kinds of time, just let me know the important stuff so I know if there’s something bigger than us going on.” Fuck it, might as well get it all out.

“I’m in witness protection. My alias is James Novak, I won’t give you my real name for my own safety. Zachariah Adler is the man who had the gun to my head tonight. While I was overseas I uncovered a faction of the military that was involved with a third party monetizing the war. First Lieutenant Adler was a part of that faction.”

Castiel takes a moment before continuing. His gaze not once straying from the white tile floor he’d been staring at since being brought in. “Amelia Everett is the woman he shot and killed when you came on the scene. Claire is her daughter. My daughter.”

The officer shifts uncomfortably in his seat at the mention of Claire. “I’m a- I’m sure she’s just fine. EMT’s didn’t seem too rushed back there so she must have been in pretty good condition.”

Castiel looks up suddenly, every ounce of him filled with worry. “Zachariah mentioned he had knocked her out with allergy medicine. Could that affect any treatment they give her?”

The man looks at him from across the table with just as much worry, “Honestly, I’m not sure. But I can let my someone know to give the hospital a call about it.” Without hesitation the man rose from his seat and left leaving Castiel to sit anxiously in the small room.

"Krissy said she'd give them a call." The officer announces as he slides back into the chair across the table. Castiel finally looks at the man enough to see more than a vague outline. He looks as tired as Castiel feels. "So, uh, with you being in wit-pro is there a specific officer I need to be calling to give a report about this whole mess?"

"Sheriff Hanscum, Stillwater Minneso-”

“No shit?!” The officer’s face lights up noticeably at the name, “Donna Hanscum?”

Castiel shifts a little nervously in his chair at the sudden excitement, “Yes sir. She recently transferred from Baudette where I was relocated, but she remained on my case.”

“Huh, she’s actually the one who got me into law enforcement in the first place.” The officer looks a little lost in thought before shaking his head a bit to regain focus, "Long way from home, you have anywhere to stay here?"

"No sir."

"Well there isn't much for hotels in this town," he chuckles, "but my partner's mom, Ellen, owns a bar down the road and they've got a couple rooms above it they rent out. It's called The Roadhouse. If you tell her I sent you and she won't think twice about letting you stay as long as you need."

"Thank you, sir." Finally, the end of the day is in sight.

As the officer stands up and begins clearing the notes scattered on the table Castiel realizes he never got the man's name.

"Who do I tell her sent me?"

"Winchester, Dean Winchester." The man smiles brightly sticking out his hand for Castiel to shake.


	2. Congrats! It's a Preschooler

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He’s the only family that Claire has left thanks to Zachariah. However, Castiel has never so much as babysat before...

It’s almost two in the morning by the time Officer Winchester releases him from the station with directions to The Roadhouse. “Less than half a mile out of town, just stay on the main road and you’ll be fine. Made the walk back wasted enough times myself to know you’ll be just fine.”

Sure enough, Castiel finds it with no problem. The whole building has a western sort of feel to it, everything about it screams small-town bar. Gravel parking lot, tin siding, tin roof, neon lights in the windows. Ellen, he would assume by Officer Winchester’s description, is the rough-looking woman waiting for him behind the bar.

“First door on the right, keys already in the door. Stairwell doesn’t have a door, but don’t let that fool ya into thinking you can steal from me. Enough security in this place you’d be stupid to try to take so much as a napkin without permission.”

“That won’t be an issue ma’am,” Castiel assures her.

“It’s Ellen,” Her face cracks into a small smile as she comes around the counter to continue closing, “Ash lives up there and he’s on the force. He’s got this place pretty secure, I know Dean said you might be a little nervous about safety and all that.”

“Thank you for the room, Ellen. I’ll be out of here as soon as possible.”

“Don’t worry about it, kid.” She shakes her head as she finishes putting up the barstools, “He said you have a daughter, I won’t tell you the two of you can’t stay here, but it is a bar. Might be a good idea to get an apartment, I know a good slumlord whose got a few places available. Left his number on the nightstand for ya’.”

“How much for the room anyway? Officer Winchester didn’t sa-” Before he can even finish he’s cut off by Ellen’s loud laugh.

“I don’t charge for the rooms, Jimmy. Dean knows that, hell him and his brother lived here for longer than either of them wish they’d had to.” Ellen’s all but ready to turn off the last few lights at this point, “All I expect is a damn good tip when you come down for a burger or a beer. Everyone goes through shit in their life, I’m no stranger to that. Now get some sleep so you can go see your little one.”

Without so much as a parting goodbye, Ellen’s flicking the lights off and heading out the door. There’s a light in the stairwell and in the hall upstairs, so at least he wasn’t left in pitch black.

He feels guilty that he is here rather than sleeping next to Claire’s bedside like a father should. But he hasn’t exactly been much more than a sperm donor to Claire before now so what’s one more night. Besides, the young dark haired girl at the front desk, Krissy he thought he heard the officer call her, back at the station had been so kind as to point out that he looked ‘like trash’ and should get some sleep or he’d scare the poor kid.

He’s got no bag to worry about, just his phone and wallet. Even his keys he’d hastily left in the ignition. True to her word, Ellen had left a sticky note on the end table.

Crowley xxx-xxx-xxxx  
Don’t let him talk you into staying at East View they got bugs  
Two bedrooms ain’t worth more than $400/month in these parts  
Mention Dean sent you his way and he’ll give a hell of a deal

Castiel finds himself smiling at the note. Minnesota lived up to the ‘Minnesota Nice’ stereotype, but he hadn’t expected this much kindness from complete strangers in the middle of Kansas.

**************************

It’s just after six in the morning when Castiel is abruptly awoken by music (if you can call it that) blaring from the other end of the hallway. Probably the Ash guy that Ellen had mentioned.

Less than three hours of sleep has him feeling like shit, but it’s still a better morning than yesterday was. No death threats awaiting him at the end of the night anyway. His stomach is in knots as he thinks about officially meeting Claire. He had willed himself years ago to forget all about Amelia for fear that he’d slip and go find them.

But there’s no running from this, he’s all she has left. Hell, she’s all he has at this point. Two days ago he was selling ads for local radio station and now everything has changed.

Shit. He’d have to call work and explain. Or quit, he should probably just quit. Claire’s life is here. It was Jimmy’s life in Baudette, not Castiel’s. But then again, he wasn’t exactly his old self now either. Hasn’t been since him and Anna had stumbled into witnessing Uriel killing damn near half their squadron.

The shower has terrible water pressure and it’s almost not worth it beings he only has what he came in, but at least it gets him in the right headspace to go meet his daughter.

Fuck, except he doesn’t have a clue where the nearest hospital even is or have a way to get there. He supposes the station should know where they’d taken Claire beings they had gotten ahold of the hospital last night. Looks like he’s heading back to the station then.

***************

“Forget something, Jimmy?” Officer Winchester pipes up from behind a desk as soon as he’s through the front door to the small station.

“You’re still working?” Castiel asks without thinking, “Don’t they let you go home?”

The officer laughs glancing over at (who Castiel is assuming based on outfit and desk) is the Sheriff, “Nah Jody’s nice enough to let me go home now and then. Last night was just an all hands on deck kind of situation. Don’t get a lot more than kids selling pot and drunk driving in these parts.”

“Ah, makes sense.” He can feel his face flush. Because of him, they were working on almost no sleep, likely having a shitty Thursday.

“So what’cha need then?” Officer Winchester asks, kicking his feet up on his desk earning a shake of the head from his superior.

“I feel pretty stupid, I’m not sure what hospital Claire was taken to. I’d have looked it up on the Google, but in my haste, I didn’t grab my charger before I took off down here. Used most of my battery on directions.”

“Ain’t no worry.” The officer nods, but moves his feet off his desk so he can click around on the desktop computer a bit. “She’s just over in Smith County Memorial, only a twenty-minute drive. I’ll print you off directions. Ask any nurse to borrow a charger, they’ve all got ‘em or know someone who does. Let’s be real, who doesn’t use their phone at work.”

Another pointed glare from his boss.

“Except me, of course.” Officer Winchester smirks over to her as the printer whirs. “Here’s your directions. Oh, and your shitty car is out back.”

“Dean-”

“It’s gold, Jody.” Dean argues, “It’s damn near a pimpmobile.”

Despite having his car being insulted, Castiel can’t help but smile. It wasn’t his first choice for a car, but it was a gift from Gabriel. His brother had told him that he’d be sure to choose what car ‘Jimmy’ got to drive around. He’d expected some version of a bug but ended up with a true monstrosity.

“He’s right, it’s a truly awful car.” He knows that he’s still smiling like an idiot, damn he misses his ass of a brother more than anything right now, “but I wouldn’t want to drive anything else.”

“We sure you’re not suffering head trauma?” Officer Winchester quips as he fishes out the keys from a drawer. “Anyways, like I said it’s just parked right out back.

“Don’t mind him, he’s only on his first cup of coffee.” The Sheriff says with an endearing smile. “I spoke with Claire last night about what happened, she was doing good then so don’t worry too much. They just wanted to keep her overnight for observation.”

“Thank you, ma’am.” Just like Ellen had the night before, Jody almost cringes at being called ma’am.

“Call me Jody, or Sheriff Mills. I’m not old enough to be ma’am yet.”

“Says who?”

“Watch it Winchester.” She scolds, but the smile never leaves her face, it reminds him of how he and his mother had been before she passed.

************************

He damn near cries when he sees Claire. She’s sleeping on the hospital bed, wrapped up in a fuzzy Doc McStuffins blanket. He’s got a teddy bear from the gift shop in his hands and his phone charging on the other side of the room as he watches her sleep.

Behind him, he can hear a soft knock on the door and pulls his eyes from his child.

“Missouri Mosley, child protection services.” The woman’s voice is soft and kind with a southern twang to it, but that doesn’t stop the nerves in Castiel’s stomach as the woman sits in the empty chair next to him, “Jimmy I presume.”

“Yes, ma’am.” He should have expected this, it’s not like the county wouldn’t get involved in a situation like this.

“You’re listed on her birth certificate, but you’ve never been in her life is that correct?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He nods, pointedly not looking her in the eyes. “I am in witness protection, well I suppose I was. After last night, I'm not sure about that anymore.”

“Amelia changed her last name when she moved up to Lebanon. Her and Claire both have the last name Novak. I assume she did that for you.”

“I didn’t ask her to.” He looks up, letting his eyes meet hers for the first time since she sat down. “I told her to get as far away from me as she could, I didn’t want them to be in danger.”

“Would I be correct to assume that you don’t have any other kids then?”

“Yes, ma’am.” He confirms.

“She’s got no other family. Her grandpa’s dead, grandma’s in the dementia unit a couple towns over. It was just her and her momma.” Missouri sighs as she looks in front of them at the sleeping girl. “You’re all she has left, Jimmy.”

There are knots in Castiel’s stomach every time he looks at the girl. She deserves so much better than him after what he’s caused to be taken from her in the last day alone.

“Don’t look like that now, you’re going to be an amazing father. You wouldn’t be here otherwise.” Without looking, Castiel can tell that the woman is smiling sincerely. “However, beings you’re new to the whole parenting business I will be checking in on you every now and again. And don’t you hesitate to call either.”

Missouri digs around in her bag, pulling out a yellow legal pad ripping off the first sheet and handing it to him. “This is all the information I can think off to get you right now. My contact information is right up top, then I took down some of Claire and Amelia’s information. Police have got their apartment taped off as a crime scene, sheriff station will call you when you’re able to go back there. I’ve already stopped by and grabbed the stuff Claire should need for the next few days. It’s in the duffle over by the window.”

“Thank you for everything.” Castiel can feel his eyes watering as he looks over the sheet of paper, barely noticing the social worker taking her leave from the room.

Looking over the information he finds the number for her daycare. The one that she was probably supposed to be at right now. Castiel grabs his phone off the charger and dials the number. Can’t be much different than calling in sick to work, right?

“This is Lisa.”

“Hi, I’m calling to let you know that Claire Novak won’t be in today.”

“Okay, and who is this?”

“This is Ca-Jimmy. I’m Claire’s father.” He shakes his head a bit at his screw up. Until Sheriff Hanscum tells him otherwise, he is Jimmy Novak. “There’s been an incident regarding Amelia.”

“She’s dead, isn’t she?” Castiel can hear the woman’s voice on the other end catch. “I knew something was wrong when he left, he never ditches us. Fuck. I’m sorry, I’m sure you don’t want to deal with a stranger crying on the phone.”

“It’s really no issue, Claire is still asleep.”

“How’s she holding up?”

“I don’t know, haven’t spoken to her.” After a moment he adds, “ever.”

“Yeah, Amelia told me about your situation. I’ve been watching Claire since she was a few months old.” He hears a sigh on the other end, “Will she be in tomorrow then?”

“Yes, what time does she get dropped off?”

“Usually she’s here seven thirty to five, but given your situation just drop her off and pick her up when you need. She’s a great kid, I won’t mind a little extra time with her while you get things situated.”

“Thank you so much, Lisa.” A small wave of relief washes over him, “Is everyone in this town so nice or is it just because of what happened?”

There’s a laugh on the other end, sounding wet with tears, “Perks of a small town I guess. I’ll let you go, if you need anything, Jimmy, just call me alright.”

“I will, thank you again.” And once again, Castiel is left to just watch his daughter sleep.

“Mommy?” A little voice comes from the bed and it pulls more tears from Castiel. “Is that you, mommy?”

“It’s not your mommy, Claire,” Castiel says, sitting up straighter to hit the call light like the nurse had requested he do when she woke up. “I’m your father.”

“Daddy?” It’s startling how quickly the little girl sits up, whipping around her head to look at him. Her light blue eyes are filled with curiosity and if it weren’t for the circumstances that brought them together it would be a dream come true to get to see his child looking at him like this.

The look is pulled from him as a nurse in bright green scrubs comes into the room. “Hey sweetie, how are you feeling?”

Claire cocks her head to the side like she’s got to think about it, “I’m good.” She finally decides.

“Do you remember what happened yesterday?” The nurse asks, jotting something down on her clipboard.

“A bad man took my mommy to Heaven to live with my grandpa. Jody talked to me about it last night. She gave me chocolates so I like her.” She answers with a small nod to her head, “But I had a dream about my mommy and me getting ice cream and mommy told me that my daddy was an angel and that he was going to save me. So I am good.”

“Well! That’s great, Claire.” The nurse nods along with her before turning her attention to Castiel. “So this must be your angel then?”

“Yup!” Claire says without missing a beat, “But now I’m hungry. Can I have ice cream for breakfast?”

Castiel can’t help but smile at that. Of all the ways he saw this going, ice cream wasn’t what he expected. But, he supposes, children tend to find better ways than adults to cope with trauma. They way she’s said it reminds him of Gabriel, he’d always used ice cream as a coping mechanism when they were kids.

“I’m afraid I can’t let you have dessert right away.” The nurse pouts, “Doctor grumpy pants might get mad if I get his patients all sugared up.” She laughs along with Claire, “I’ll bring up something in just a bit though, okay. I’ve got a couple of other kiddos to check on and you two should be good to leave by lunchtime.”

“Daddy?” Castiel isn’t sure if it’s the little voice that’s saying it or the fact that she’s calling him daddy without a second thought, but his heart swells enough he thinks it’ll burst.

“Yes, Claire?”

“Why did it take you so long to find us?” Her little head cocks to the side again, the blonde hair cascading down adding to the innocent look.

He sighs heavily, not really knowing how to answer, “The bad man Jody told you about, he was really mad at me. I was trying to hide from him and I was scared that you and your mommy would get hurt if you stayed with me.”

“Mommy got hurt.”

“Yes, yes she did.” Tears start welling up and he does nothing to stop them, “I was very careful, but the bad man still found me. Even though I tried to stay hidden he found me and used you and your mommy to try and get me. Your mommy got hurt because of me.”

“No.” She’s shaking her head at that, so sure of her response, “Mommy always said that sometimes bad things just happen and it’s no one’s fault. Like when Alex’s puppy got hitted by a truck.” She shrugs her little shoulders as if she harbours no ill feelings towards him for getting her mother killed, “It be like that sometimes.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'll try to keep updating this as often as I can. It won't be consistent in any way but should be at least once a week.
> 
> (also it's super helpful that I have a 5 year old so at least I know Claire is talking correct for her age)


	3. 20 Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Castiel and Claire get to know each other.

“Alright, Jimmy, Claire is all set to go!” The overly perky nurse, Jessica as he’d learned, in the bright green scrubs announces as soon as Castiel has handed her back the clipboard of discharge paperwork.

The lobby of the county hospital isn’t anything special, but it’s very well maintained. Claire is in a wheelchair by request, one the nurse had happily obliged her with, and he’s wearing Claire’s Captain Marvel backpack and lugging around the car seat the social worker had left with him.

“To the batmobile!” Claire announces with excitement, pointing in the general direction of the front entrance. The three of them make their way through the small parking lot to Castiel’s car. Claire giggles at it, which is a better reaction than most people give him anyway.

Installing a car seat is A LOT harder than one would think, as Castiel soon finds out.

“Need a quick tutorial?” Jessica asks with a small laugh. 

“Yes, that would be incredibly helpful.” Castiel steps back with a sigh and lets her crawl in to hook it up.

“Okay, so until you’re better at this I’ll put it forward-facing. Claire is still small enough that she could maybe rear face for a while longer, but it’s not necessary at her age and size.”

“Okay, and I just buckle it in?” He asks unsurely.

“There is a little spot where you thread it through when you’ve got some time just play around with it. Owner’s manual is tucked into the side pocket and there are diagrams on the sides for the different ways to install it.”

“What’s most important,” she continues, “is that Claire is buckled up properly.”

Jessica turns to Claire, who is still happily sitting in the wheelchair. “How about you hop in so I can show your daddy how to do this.”

Wiggling out of the wheelchair, Claire climbs up into the seat, with Jessica sitting in the back next to her. “Okay, so you’ll want to make sure her butt and back are as far back as they go, then buckle it like this-” she clips the buckles- “and make sure that it’s tight enough that you can’t fit two fingers in and that the chest clip is actually on her chest.”

“And that’s it?”

“Yup, that’s it.” She confirms, pushing the driver's seat forward so she can climb out of the car.

“Thank you for doing this, I’m sure you’re busy.”

“Seriously, don’t worry about it.” She shakes her head at him, “Honestly, it’s nice to know that you care enough to accept the help.”

***********************

The two of them made a pit stop at a grocery store to pick up some essentials to get them through the next day at least, Castiel figuring he’ll use Claire’s time at daycare tomorrow to get anything else they’ll need.

Castiel finds it surprisingly easy to shop with the child. It was a short trip, but there were no outbursts or ‘I WANT THIS NOW’ type of arguments.

Back at their borrowed room, things feel much more awkward. It’s only about three in the afternoon, but Castiel has no idea how to entertain a child. Rather than stewing in silence, he brought Claire down to the bar below them and they settled in a booth with some apple juice and snacks.

“Mommy had lots of pictures of you all over our house,” Claire announces out of the blue while drawing on printer paper with a sharpie (both courtesy of Ellen).

Back when Amelia and him had been together he had tried to avoid pictures, asking her not to post them anywhere for fear that Zachariah or Michael would find him. The excuse had been a stalker from a past relationship and was enough for her to honor that.

“She said she wanted me to know who you were even if you weren’t there.” Just like Amelia to do something so kind to someone so undeserving of kindness. She always had such a big heart.

“Do you have any questions for me, Claire?” Folding his hands nervously in front of himself, he watches as she draws the outline of a garden.

“Mommy said she didn’t have any family.” She looks up at him, her blue eyes meeting his, “Do you have a family?”

It’s an innocent question and he finds himself chuckling, “Yes, I have lots of family.” One of them wants me dead, but that’s not something he’ll tell her.

“You have four uncles, my brothers. Michael, Lucius, Raphael, and Gabriel. My parents, Chuck and Eve, are both still alive but they aren’t together anymore.”

“How come? Isn’t love forever, daddy?”

“Not for your grandpa.” He means it lightheartedly but isn’t sure Claire would get that. Isn’t really sure what a five-year-old gets at all. “Chuck has been married more than once, some of my brothers have different moms than me.”

“Cool.” Is all she responds.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any of them.” This isn’t something he means to say out loud, but it comes out anyway.

“Do I have any aunties?”

“No aunties, unless one of your uncles got married since I’ve last heard from them. I have an aunt, Amara. So she’s your great-aunt. But she’d probably feel old if you called her that, so if you ever talk to her I’d stick with aunt.”

“Cousins?” There is obvious optimism in her eyes, and he hates to take that away.

“Again, none that I know of.” Her face drops a little, but she recovers quickly and continues her picture.

“Are we going to live here? It smells like burgers.”

“No, I want to find us somewhere to live. Ellen gave me a number to call but I wanted to ask you what kind of place you want to live.” He pulls out the number from his wallet, where he had stuck it before coming down.

“Can we live in a pink house?” Claire asks not bothering to look up at him.

“I’ll see what I can do.” He chuckles at her response, pulling out his phone to give this Crowley guy a call.

It rings a few times before a clearly british voice answers, “King of Hell, to what do I owe this pleasure?”

“Is this Crowley? I was given this number to find a place to rent.” There’s some muttering on the other end as if the entire call is a waste of this guy’s time and Castiel almost hangs up the phone, but he needs to do this for his daughter.

“Yes, this is Crowley.” Expecting more, Castiel doesn’t respond until it’s evident that that’s all the man plans to say.

“Well, like I said I’m looking for a place to rent in Lebanon. Dean recommended me.” He adds, looking down at Ellen’s note.

“Ah, Dean! Well then, let me tell you all about this really nice little one-bedroom on the sexy side of tow-”

“Two bedrooms. It’s me and my five-year-old.” He explains, hoping to not end up on the sexy side of anything with this man.

“Hmm, so are you looking for an apartment or house?” The man asks, “What kind of budget?”

Thank goodness for Ellen’s suggested price point, “House would be preferred. Five hundred a month.”

“I might have a couple of places I could show you. I’ll give you a ring tomorrow about them.”

“Thank you, Crowley. I’ll be able to see them whenever you’re available.” Hopefully, when Claire is at daycare, this man doesn’t exactly scream child-friendly.

“Alright, Claire, I just have to make one more call quick.” Claire nods to let him know that she heard, but doesn’t look up from her drawing.

Calling to quit sucks, but having to leave a voicemail sucks just a little less. It’s brief and leaves no room for having to explain himself further than a “This is Jimmy Novak, sorry for the late notice but I quit effective immediately.”

Wanting to enjoy the only slightly awkward silence between him and his child, Castiel orders them each an order of chicken strips and fries (Claire had complained enough about the smell of burgers and that led him to not order them despite the smell enticing him).

It isn’t Ellen who drops them off, instead, it’s a way too perky redhead with a Game of Thrones t-shirt on underneath a plaid shirt that gives them their food.

“Charlie.” She announces, sticking her hand out to Castiel. “I don’t actually work here, but I saw you with Claire and I put it together that you were Jimmy so I told Ellen I’d bring your food over for you so I could stop and chat.”

Overwhelmed is a start to what Castiel is feeling. Her general brightness reminds him of the nurse he’d met this morning, but she had enough energy to outshine the Energizer Bunny.

“Charlie!” Claire yells, tossing her arms around her in a hug.

“Hi, yes I’m Jimmy.” He finally says, watching as Charlie scoots into Claire’s booth. “How is it that you know Claire?”

“Back up babysitter.” She beams, “One of Claire’s friend’s dad’s sorta kind-of sister.”

“Okay?” He responds, having followed exactly none of that.

“Daddy,” Claire says matter of factly to Castiel, “Charlie is a Queen you know.”

“Yes, my warrior.” She shifts her gaze back to Castiel, “I am Queen of Moondoor. It’s a LARP thing that Claire goes to with me, her friend, and his dad.”

“Is this something I have to participate in?” LARPing is something he’d only heard of, but never had interest in partaking in.

“Amelia didn’t, but you should definitely try it!” Charlie looks over to a booth on the other side of the bar. From where he’s sitting, Castiel can see one man and make out the back of the other’s head. The one he can see is wearing a similar plaid shirt and has longer brown hair.

“Anyway, that’s not really why I came over here.” She shakes her head causing the short red curls to bounce a little, “Besides being a totally awesome Queen one every four months, I am also an Officer of the Lebanon PD.”

“Do we need to talk elsewhere?” He asks her, looking over to Claire.

“No, I haven’t even been at work since they called me in that night. Dean, Officer Winchester, wanted me to pass along that Sheriff Hanscum will be here tomorrow around nine, she wants to talk with you.”

“I’ll be there, thank you for passing along the message.”

“Well we just got the call from her to let us know the time, we were going to call you but what’s the point in that when you’re right across the room.”

“Makes perfect sense, thank you, Charlie.”

“Alright, I’ve gotta get back to the kinda sort of brothers before they eat all my food. Good to meet you, Jimmy,” Charlie turns to give Claire a side hug before leaving the booth, “always a pleasure my fair warrior.”

“Charlie, wait!” Claire scoots out of the booth, and meets Charlie where she turns around, “I drew this for you. It’s all of us. See, that’s you with the crown! And that’s your handmaiden and giant! And over here your noble warriors. And I drew my daddy too because you said you want to play with him. But I don’t know what he wants to be so I made him a warrior just like me.”

“Awwww, Claire this is the best!” Charlie’s smile could be seen a mile away, it’s easy to see that her reaction is real. “I’ll show it the giant and handmaiden right away and then it’s getting framed!”

“That was really nice of you, Claire,” Castiel tells her when she retakes her seat. She just shrugs at him in response before continuing her meal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Facebook.com/KatGAuthor for updates on all my works :)  
Message me if you want to write this with me.


	4. Jimmy is Dead

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sheriff Hanscum has some news for Castiel.

Dropping Claire off at daycare was a little heartbreaking. The little girl ran into the home daycare right up to a slightly older boy and a girl about her own age.

“Guys! This is my daddy! I found my daddy!” He could hear her yelling to them in the other room.

“Don’t think too hard on it, she’s not one for goodbyes.” Lisa says still holding the door open for him. She gives him a once-over while she talks about what they usually do during the day, and all the other things most parents would know.

Just before he turns to leave, she stops him. “I just wanted you to know that I’m handling Amelia’s funeral. I’ve been her emergency contact for years now, so I just want you to know that I will be handling all of it. I meet with the lawyer on Monday to go over her will. I’m assuming most of it will go to Claire, but really she didn’t have a whole lot.”

“You must have been rather close to Amelia.” Castiel says, looking down at his feet. It’s been so long he can barely remember what Amelia looks like, he hadn’t kept any pictures for fear that it would end up with her dead.

“She’s been like a sister to me these past few years. Back when she got into town we were both single mothers and leaned on each other a lot for everything. When Ben’s father came back in the picture she was the one who talked me into letting him into our lives.”

“She always did want the best for everyone.” Castiel smiles remembering all the times he and Amelia had talked about Castiel missing his family. Even though to her, he was Jimmy and estranged from his family over religious differences, talking with her had helped him tremendously. It was one of the reasons he had found himself falling in love with her.

“It won’t be a big thing, the funeral. Just some friends enjoying a meal together. I’ll let you know when it’s going to be, right now we’re thinking probably a week from today. Gives us plenty of time to coordinate with the nursing home to get her mother to come.”

“Mom! Alex threw her toast at me!” The boy yells from further inside the house.

“Well that’s my cue, have a great day, Jimmy. Pick Claire up whenever, she’s always welcome here.” Lisa says as she ducks into the house to deal with the kids leaving Castiel free to walk back to his car.

At the station once again, Castiel finds himself incredibly nervous. If Sheriff Hanscum has come all the way down from Stillwater than she must have some pretty important news. When he gets there, a lanky officer greets him.

“Garth Fitzgerald the fourth.” The man proclaims with a dopey smile. He doesn't really seem the type to be a cop, but it’s not like Castiel really looks the type to have been in the army either so he’s not really one to judge.

The only other Lebanon officer that’s there is Officer Winchester, but he’s not in uniform. He’s wearing a band t-shirt and jeans, laughing at something Sheriff Hanscum is saying to him from across his desk. If he wasn’t in the state of mind he was currently in, Castiel would think the look is rather hot, but he can’t focus on anything besides his identity at this point.

“Well for Pete’s sake! How ya been.” Donna’s chirpy voice cuts through Castiel’s thoughts and before he knows it she’s coming in for a tight hug. “Dean here was just catching me up on what happened this week. Been a rough one, eh?”

“It has, Donna.” He confirms once she lets him go, following her over to Dean’s desk where he sits in the second seat across from the officer.

“So, most importantly your case is closed.” She says with a bright smile, “Adler was the last one on our list and thanks to Dean over here we got him dealt with.”

“What’s that mean for me being Jimmy?” He asks tentatively.

“Jimmy Novak’s dead. Rest in peace, buddy.” Officer Winchester cuts in.

“Thank God!” Castiel exclaims, not caring about disrupting Garth’s work on the other side of the room.

“I’ve got all your old documents here, of course some of them will have to be updated. It’s been a hot minute since you’ve been Castiel anywho.”

“Castiel?” The officer asks with a slight laugh, his bright green eyes somehow getting brighter.

“My father was rather religious and named us all after angels. Somehow I got the angel of Thursdays and my brothers are all named after archangels.” He explains for the thousandth time in his life.

“Talk about drawing the short straw, eh?” Donna laughs, nudging his shoulder playfully. “I’ve also got a letter in there from Gabriel and a bunch of miscellaneous paperwork you’ve got the pleasure to deal with.”

“Alright, well I’m going to take off then,” Office Winchester announces, getting up from his desk to give Donna a hug, “Not working today, just came in to catch up with Donna.” He explains to Castiel. “Nice to meet you, Cas.” He says on his way out the front door.

Cas. In all of his thirty-two years, the nickname has never sounded so good than it does coming from Officer Winchester.

“So, Donna, how’s Doug?” He asks, mostly to keep his mind away from the officer that he should not be thinking about right now.

“Betcha mean old Doug. Lucky I haven’t got a clue what that ass is up to these days, but I got myself a new Doug and he’s doing pretty okay, I’d say.”

“You must have a type.”

“That I do.” She says with a sigh.

****************

Crowley calls him just as he’s leaving the station to meet him at a small house about a block away. Deciding it wouldn’t be worth it to drive a block, he chooses to walk.

The man looks as smarmy as he sounds. For a small town, he feels the suit and fancy red car are entirely excessive. Everything about him feels sort of icky. But the house is pretty okay. Small, partially furnished, but doable. At the end of the tour, Castiel signs the lease on a 6 month basis, adding his signed copy to the folder of paperwork Donna had given him earlier.

By the time he’s ready to pick up Claire from Lisa’s, he has the two of them ‘moved in’ to their new place. He’s put away the groceries and their few belongings. Hell, he even stopped on his way back from the grocery store when he saw a help wanted sign in the gas station window and got himself a job.

When he gets to Lisa’s door, there is a note saying they’re out back playing taped to the door. Going around the house, he pauses for a moment to watch Claire play. Her and a couple other kids are chasing each other around in capes like little super heroes.

Lisa catches his eye from across the yard and gestures for him to come over. The yard is big with all kinds of play sets within the fence. His rental has a little yard, but nothing like this. This is the kind of yard Castiel dreams of.

“Daddy! Hey guys, this is my angel daddy!” Claire yells, running towards him while throwing the cape behind her.

“Hey, ready to go home?”

“Does it still smell like burgers?” She asks with a tilt of her head.

“No, this is a different place.” He says, holding out his hand for her to grab. Castiel gets a warm feeling in his chest when she gladly takes it, waving goodbye to her friends.

Claire’s first reaction to their new living arrangement is a very vocal disappointment that it isn’t pink. To which Castiel just laughs, he really didn’t think she was serious about that.

She likes her new room, but is sad that it isn’t her old room. “It’s boring!” Claire had said more than once about the plain white walls and beige carpets.

Supper consists of mac’n’cheese with hot-dogs, a favorite from Castiel’s own childhood. Bedtime is made of eight bedtime stories, three songs, and finally a passed out child.

Once he’d laid in bed, Castiel was out for the night. He was glad that Claire finally knew his real name, though she thought it was kind of weird that her mom had called him Jimmy if that wasn’t his name. He hadn’t told her that his last name isn’t Novak. Truthfully, he isn’t sure he wants to go back to being a Shurley. He’d rather be a Novak like his daughter.

***********

It’s eerily quiet in the community center. Castiel and three members of his squadron scope out the area for the children that had been spotted here. The sooner they could get them out of here, the sooner they can get back to base.

Just as soon as he’s ready to call the building empty, the building is swarming with soldiers from the other side. Gunfire cuts through the silent afternoon. Only one down on his side and dozens from the other by the time they retreat. 

Inias is injured, somewhere in the abdomen judging by the blood pooling under his back. Castiel is by his side, “I’ve got you, it’s going to be alright. I’ve got you, Nias.”

“Adler-” Inias was trying to say through grunts of pain.

“You think this was Adler?” Castiel asks to which Inias nods his head.

“What is he talking about?” Hester asks harshly, standing off to the side, “What does First Lieutenant Adler have to do with a random attack?”

“He’s working both sides,” Castiel starts to explain, running a hand reassuringly across Inias’ cheek.

Hester’s laugh rings through the room, “Oh, Castiel, if only you would obey like a good little soldier.” She finally says, pulling her gun up to Castiel’s head.

“Please, Hester, enough of us have died.” Inias begs, coughing up blood at the effort he’s making. “Please.”

BANG.

Castiel awakes with a jolt, covered in sweat and shaking in his bed. His bed. He’s home, not at war. Safe.

He shudders at his dream. It’s not how that mission ended, but it easily could have been had Meg not snuck up behind Hester and killed her.

Sitting up, he pulls his phone off the charge to check the time. Five in the morning, great, that means there's no way he'll get back to sleep before Claire wakes up. Not that he particularly wants to chance continuing that dream anyway.

So Castiel gets out of bed, stepping quietly through the small house to make himself some tea. At this hour he'd prefer coffee, but coffee makers make noise and boiling water does not.

Sitting on the well-worn couch, Castiel tries to make the most of having woken up at at the ass crack of dawn. Digging through the different things in the folder Sheriff Hanscum had given him the previous day, Castiel finds the letter from Gabriel. There’s another envelope in the envelope, but he chooses to ignore that to read the letter first. Ignoring the second envelope has totally nothing to do with all the times he’s been glitter-bombed by his brother. Nope, totally not the reason at all.

_ Oh Heavenly Angel Of The Boringest Day Of The Week, _

_ There’s so much to tell you Cas, it’s been insane since they put you in protection (insert totally inappropriate, but super funny dick joke here). Fuck, man, this went DEEP (insert another dick joke here). _

_ Long story short, Michael has been profiting off of the war by working with a weapons company contracted with the government. Almost everyone under him was connected in someway. He’s in maximum now, but that’s not even the biggest thing you’ve missed. _

_ Lucius has a son. His name is Jack Kline. His mother, Kelly, died in childbirth and there’s no family on her side. Jack is the sweetest fucking baby, man it sucks that you’re missing this. He actually seemed like he might be a halfass decent dad until he was arrrested. Turns out him and Michael had been in on it together from the start. I tried to get custody of Jack, but fucking Lilith got temporary custody while Lucius is in max. _

_ I’m being shipped out again, Cassie. It’s an important mission and there’s no way I can get out of it. You got to get him out of there. Jack needs you. I know you were never sure if you wanted kids and all, but I know you’d be great. _

_ Don’t bother talking to Raph about him, that hypocritical ass laughed in my fucking face when I asked him if he would pursue custody. Called the kid an abomination for being born out of wedlock as if the kid had any say in it. _

_ I’ve included pictures for you and his social worker’s card. _

_ Chuck and Eve have gone pretty far underground thanks to the shit Michael and Lucius pulled, so good luck trying to get in contact with them. (Oh yeah, they’re back together again. Third times the charm right?) _

_ I love you Cas. As soon as you’re you again let me know. _

_ -Your favorite brother _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't post updates regularly, just as often as I can. If you think it's been too long, leave a comment and I'll try to fix that. :)


	5. Jack

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> JACK!!! Need I say more?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I didn't reread this one, so it's completely unedited. Going through an emotional funk this week so you get what you get and you don't throw a fit.

Pulling out the other envelope, Castiel can see that his hands are shaking. Inside are pictures, just as his brother promised. A little boy golden haired boy, held tight in the arms of his Uncle Gabriel. Another was Jack as an infant cradled by Grandpa Chuck. The last picture was likely the most recent judging by Jack’s size. He’s dressed for Easter at church. Castiel would recognize the little purple and blue bunny tie they had all worn anywhere. But Jack isn’t smiling. It’s Lilith whose holding his hand, and there is a solemn look on his face.

He doesn’t know how long he’s been staring at the photo, but the sun is coming up now. He knows he should get up, he should do something about it. But what can he do? He’s only been a father for a couple of days now, and his nephew needs him.

“How come you’re crying?” The little voice startles him, coming from the where the hall meets the tiny living room.

“Hey, sweetie. I’m sorry, did I wake you up?” Castiel shifts on the couch, clearing up some of the papers to the end table so she can sit next to him. 

“The mean sun woke me up.” Rubbing her bleary eyes, she forgoes the couch cushion in favor of climbing right up into his lap, flopping her head against his chest.

“Are you sad, daddy?” She asks again with her chin tilted out to look up at him.

Castiel sighs, from what he knows of her, Claire is too inquisitive and too stubborn to just let this go. He wouldn't want to start off their relationship by lying to her or hiding things from her anyway. He’d had enough of that from his father growing up to know it just leads to issues down the line.

“I got a letter from my brother. It turns out, you do have a cousin.” The little squeal of glee that erupts from Claire is enough to melt his heart into a puddle, shifting a bit he grabs the pictures from the end table. “His name is Jack. He’s three years old, here’s his picture.”

“Why’s he sad too?”

“His daddy, my brother, did a very bad thing and his mommy is up in Heaven. Right now he’s living with his grandma, and she’s not a very good person.”

“Can we have him?” She tilts her head, studying the pictures carefully.

“We can try, but it might be really hard. I don’t even know where to start to be honest.”

“Ask Uncle Sammy!” Claire sits upright on his lap suddenly, her blue eyes excited.

“Whose Sammy?” In all of the paperwork he’d gotten from Missouri there was no mention of an Uncle or anyone named Sammy.

“Sammy!” She repeats as if saying it again will clear it all up, “He helps sad little kids all the time, daddy. He can help us rescue Jack from our evil grandma!”

“Okay, first I just want to say that she’s not evil.” Okay, so maybe she kind of is in Castiel’s mind, but it’s not something he wants to teach his kids, “And she’s not even your grandma, your grandma’s name is Eve.”

“First of all,” Claire says back with enough sass that Castiel would have thought he was talking to a preteen and not a preschooler, “she made my baby cousin sad so I hate her.”

With a defeated sigh, Castiel gives up the argument for a more pressing matter. “So who EXACTLY is Sammy? Like what’s his last name, how do you know him? That kind of thing.”

“Sammy is Dean’s big little brother.” She twists in his lap so her knees are on his thighs, and places a hand on each of his cheeks squishing his face together. “When Charlie takes us to go play Moondoor, he’s a giant! He doesn’t even have to play pretend, daddy! He’s like REALLY big.” 

Hoping that this will lead him towards some information that is actually helpful, Castiel plays along, “And how can the giant help us get Jack?”

Claire scoffs at the question, “Cuz! Uncle Dean says that Uncle Sammy saves kids from bad people and grandma mean face is a bad person!”

Realization completely overshadows the child’s free use of insults, “Wait, Dean? Like the cop Dean?”

“Well duh!” her little blue eyes roll in a perfect punch of exuberance, “Uncle Dean.” 

“Okay, how about you hop down and pour yourself some cereal.” He says, then rethinks that, “Are you able to do that yourself?”

“I can do anything I can do.” She says hopping off of him with confidence that’s rather terrifying coming from someone so small. 

“Now how the hell do I get ahold of him?” Castiel mutters to himself. Okay, so if Sammy and Dean are both Claire’s ‘uncles’ they’ve got to be pretty close, together maybe? He didn’t remember seeing a ring, not that he was paying too close attention to the officer’s fingers to notice that. If he can get ahold of Dean, then he can help him get ahold of Sammy. Castiel pulls out his phone, dialing up the station.

“Officer Cesar Cuevas, how can I help you?” The voice answers.

“I’m Castiel, I’ve been in a few times this week.” He stops himself for a second, “I was going under the name Jimmy Novak. I’m looking for Officer Winchester, is he in today?”

“No, he’s not in today. Anything I can help with, Castiel?”

“I assume there’s no way you can get me in contact with him then?”

“Not without getting into some trouble,” there’s a soft chuckle on the other end of the line. Before Castiel can respond, he can hear the officer having a side conversation before addressing him again, “Wait, so you’re Jimmy/Cas?”

“Um, yes?” he responds unsurly.

“Eh! Jesse, it is him.” He hears on the other end, “Okay buddy, I’m going to help you out. I can’t give you his info, but I’m going to text him right now that he needs to give you a call. That okay?”

“That would be perfect!” A little wave of relief washes over Castiel, at least this officer made it seem like Dean would be pretty okay with this. He rattles off his number to Office Cuevas.

“Don’t go too far from your phone, I’m sure he’ll call you back pretty quick.” Before the line disconnects he can hear a couple of light laughs, but he doesn’t quite understand. He doesn’t have time to understand.

Just as he’s setting his phone down there’s a crash and a splash in the kitchen followed by a quiet, “I spilled a little.”

About halfway through mopping up the mess Castiel hears his phone buzz in the living room and then Claire answering it.

“Hello.”

“Daddy’s busy right now.”

“I spilled by fruity pebbles.”

“Nuh uh! Daddy said I can’t clean up glass, I could get hurt.” From his spot on the kitchen floor, Castiel laughs. It must be ‘Uncle Dean’ calling back.

“Hey guess what?”

“NO, silly. I have a cousin! He’s littler than me so that makes me the boss of him!”

“Does too!”

“DADDY!” She yells despite the tiny distance from the living room to the kitchen, “AM I IN CHARGE OF JACK?”

“No, right now Lilith is.”

“He said I am too.” She declares into the phone.

“Nuh uh, you didn’t hear him.”

“Ugh, fine.” She grumbles as Castiel pours her a new bowl.

“I’m not even wearing pants so how can they be on fire!”

Castiel rounds into the living room and trades her the bowl for the phone.

“Hey, Officer Winchester. This is Castiel.”

“Dean, please. It’s too early to be called officer especially on a day off.”

“I’m sorry, I know it’s rather early yet.” A low grumble of a laugh comes over the line.

“Don’t worry ‘bout it. What can I do for you?”

“It’s actually not you I need,” he starts, getting interrupted by an almost disappointed sounded ‘oh’. 

“Claire told me that Sammy could help me out with something and I’m trying to get ahold of him, but it’s early on a Saturday and I have no actual idea of who he is. I didn’t even think about the time, so if I woke you two up-”

“Whoa, I’m gonna stop you right there buddy. Sam is my brother, I don’t know what Claire was telling you but that’s as far as that goes.” For a reason Castiel doesn’t have time to focus on, he actually breathes a sigh of relief at hearing they’re brothers.

“Sorry to infer, Claire wasn’t exactly clear and I haven’t had any coffee yet.”

“Yeah, I hear that. Got mine brewing now.” Castiel internally thanks the man for the reminder and starts up his own coffee pot, “Sam just left on a run so it’ll be awhile before he gets back..”

“Okay, again I’m sorry about trying to get ahold of you so early. I don’t know how much of a morning person you are, but I’d probably be pissed at someone doing this to me.”

“I was up anyway.” There is a short silence from the both of them, “Are you sure there’s nothing I can help you with?”

If he’d care enough in the moment to pick it up, there is something almost hopeful in Dean’s voice. “Maybe. Any chance you can elaborate what Claire means when she said that Sammy saves kids from bad guys?”

“Oh, he’s a superhero. Goes all out, red jumpsuit, whitey-tities and everything.”

“Should I hand the phone back to the kid, Dean or are we adults?” He playfully chastises the man, acting more like old friends than new acquaintances. 

“Sam’s a lawyer, works up at the county courthouse representing kids that are in foster care.”

“Thank God.”

“Should I be worried for Claire that you need to get ahold of him so badly?” The playfulness in Dean’s voice is gone leaving just worry.

“No, of course not. I just found out that I have a nephew who's living with his grandmother while his father serves times and my other brother wants me to get him out of her care and-”

“Whoa slow down there cowboy.” Dean laughs out, “Have you realized you ramble a lot?”

“Yes, I tend to ramble when I’m nervous or very much in over my head.”

“How about this,” Dean starts, the firmness in his voice helping to calm Castiel down, “we’ll meet up at the Roadhouse for lunch. I can bring Sam to talk with you about your nephew and I’ll bring Ben to keep Claire company.”

“Thank you, Dean.”

“Don’t worry about it, Cas. Might want to get some coffee in you though, you sound like you need it. We’ll see you at one.”

“See you then.” He confirms with a smile bigger than fits the subject matter.


	6. A Good Start

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Winchesters work on helping Castiel with Jack (and Claire).

At ten to one, Castiel and Claire walk into the Roadhouse. As promised, Dean and his brother are waiting at the booth with Dean’s child. Letting go of Castiel’s hand, Claire runs to give Ben a hug.

“Wait, is this the same Ben from Lisa’s?” Castiel asks with his brows furrowed trying to make the connection in his head.

“Yeah, Lisa is his mom.” Dean confirms, getting up from the booth, “I get him on weekends.”

“Come on, Uncle Dean! I wanna show you pictures of my cousin!” Claire pulls at his arm, grabbing one of Ben’s with her free hand and dragging them over to a different booth.

“So you’re the famous Castiel then?” The larger man with long hair asks, one eyebrow quirked up.

“And you’re Sam, hero of children.” He responds with a small smile, taking a seat in the booth across from Sam.

“I see Claire’s been talking about me.” Sam smirks, pulling papers out of his bag. The two get right to business, Castiel explaining the note his brother had left for him and Sam explaining the legal courses of action they could take. With him, Sam brought a packet of information about getting licensed to do foster care, including the application for the county. 

“I’ll have Missouri make some calls to Jack’s social worker, but unless we can prove that Lilith is an unfit caregiver it could be near impossible to get him across state lines.”

“She treated summer vacation like boot camp, I don’t think that’ll be very hard.” Castiel huffs, “She may not have been my mother, but the fact that two of her three sons are in maximum security speaks wonders on her parenting abilities.”

Castiel glances over at the booth where his daughter is situated with Dean and Ben. They’re all giggling over something. The sight is a beautiful thing and it makes him want this all the more, lack of parenting skills be damned. 

“If you want, I can have Dean and Charlie look into her? Would definitely help if we can find anything illegal going on, even something minor could be enough to get a case opened against her for further investigation.”

“I would really appreciate that,” Castiel responds, still watching Claire’s overly dramatic laughing fit.

“He’s always been close to Claire.” Sam says, a smile evident in his voice, “Lisa and Amelia spent enough time together that Ben and Claire act like siblings. Then Dean came along and he’s kind of been a surrogate uncle to Claire.”

“Family doesn’t end in blood.” Ellen’s voice pulls Castiel’s focus from his daughter, “I been acting as these boys’ conscious long enough, I should know.”

“More like the bickering devil on my shoulder.” Dean quips from the other booth.

“That make me the angel, Winchester?” A blonde asks as she drops off some juice for the kids.

“You wish,” Sam snarks.

“I think your an angel, Jo.” Ben says with a wink.

“See, that’s how you get extra fries around here.” She responds giving Dean a playful push.

“Kids got more game than you, boy.” Ellen adds, sliding back in behind the bar.

“It’s that natural Winchester charm.” Dean beams, “It’s how I can tell he’s mine.”

Castiel sits back, watching them snark back and forth across the aisle. It’s much lighter than the kind of bickering he grew up with. There were no harsh remarks dealt out for maximum emotional damage, just playful remarks that had everyone smiling like the sun.

*********************

“The two of you done yet? I want a burger already!” Dean practically whines at Sam and Castiel, who are just finishing going over the steps to do foster care.

“Yeah, we’re done.” Sam rolls his eyes, pulling a face that can only be described as a bitch face before getting up to join Dean at his and the kid’s booth.

“Daddy, sit next to me and Uncle Dean!” Claire says, jumping up in the booth.

It’s a tight squeeze to fit in the booth with them, Claire had stayed in her spot next to the wall leaving Castiel to sit next to Dean. It felt a little awkward at first, but as they eat and talk and joke, Castiel feels a little like he’s a part of their crowd

He learns that Sam is (surprisingly) four years younger than Dean, despite being both physically bigger and acting twice as mature. Ben is a very quiet kid who enjoys flirting with pretty much anyone (just like his dad, so Castiel is told). And he learns that pretty much everyone Castiel has met since coming to town is a part of their ‘family’. 

“I never saw anyone eat out my dad until you, Cas!” Ben says, causing Castiel to almost choke on his last bite of his second burger.

“Uh, buddy I think you mean out-eat.” Sam says through a hearty laugh, looking as if he thoroughly enjoys Dean’s beet red face.

“Same thing.” The boy defends, shoving another fry in his mouth.

“Sure, buddy.” Sam says to him, ruffling the boy’s hair.

“You boys know you’re not the only ones in my bar, right?” Ellen says refilling their drinks.

“Oh come on, you love us.” Dean smirks and Ellen scoffs.

“You’re lucky I do,” She says harshly, but the smile on her face gives her away, “but if you boys stay much longer I’m gonna have to put you on dish duty.”

They all look down at their phones for the time, seeing that it's already well past five.

“No,” whines Claire, “I don’t wanna go! The new house is boring and stupid!”

“Hey,” Dean scolds at the pouting child, “you know your mom wouldn’t let you use that word.”

“What’s she gonna do about it, she’s dead.” She mutters under her breath, crossing her arms in defiance. Whether it’s the sharpness of her words, or what she’s said, Castiel doesn’t know. Either way, he can see something in Dean melt a little.

“Hey,” Dean starts, his voice much softer as he pulls Claire up into his lap, “I know it’s rough without your mom. Everything is different and nothing feels quite right, but you’ll get there eventually. You’re always going to miss her, but I promise you kiddo, she never really left you.”

“Can’t you be my daddy?” she asks with her head rested in Dean’s shoulder. It hurts to hear it, but really Castiel is nothing more than a stranger with shared DNA to Claire.

“Nah, you’ve got yourself a pretty good dad already.” He reassures her, running his hand through her hair.

From the other side of the booth, Sam slides out gesturing for Ben to as well. Without a word, Dean pulls a set of keys from his pocket and hands them over to Sam.

“But I don’t even know him.” And it’s true, Claire doesn’t know much about Castiel.

“Once upon a time you didn’t know me,” Dean says, twisting in the booth so his back is against the wall with his feet pulled up next to Castiel. “Ben didn’t know me either. He was about your age when I met him.”

“I don’t remember that.”

“You were only two, I’d be surprised if you did.” Dean chuckles, looking up at Castiel with his big green eyes.

“What do you want to know about me, Claire?” Castiel asks, hoping it’s what Dean was going for.

“What’s your favorite color?” She asks, still looking into Dean’s shirt.

“Green, what’s yours?”

“Orange.” She thinks a moment, “Who’s your favorite brother?”

“Gabriel,” He answers easily, “the others were kind of jerks.” He adds scrunching up his nose.

“Why do you have different mommies anyway?” Now she finally turns to look at him.

“That’s a bit of a story.” He chuckles, sitting a little more sideways as well. “Your grandpa, Chuck, fell in love with Lilith. They had two kids together and adopted another. Then Chuck cheated on her, which was really mean of him to do by the way, but that resulted in another one of my brothers. Chuck and Lilith got a divorce, then he fell in love with Eve. Eve and Chuck had me and according to your uncle Gabriel, they got divorced and remarried.”

“Do you like dogs or cats more? Because Uncle Sam likes dogs, Ben likes dogs, and Uncle Dean likes bunnies.”

Castiel holds back his chuckle, noting how the comment made Dean blush a little, “I like cats more than dogs, but dogs are okay too.”

“Can we get a pet kitty?” She asks, batting her lashes.

“Claire,” Dean warns.

“Maybe someday, but I don’t think we have space right now.”

“Really?” She lights up a bit, “Because Dean is kind of a meanie and won’t let Sam get a dog and I thought maybe you would be mean like that.”

“Hey, it’s not mean,” Dean defends himself, “I just don’t want some drooly mutt hanging around my house.”

“Yes, really.” Castiel answers with a bit of an eye roll aimed towards Dean, “But if we get one, I want to get one from a shelter.”

“I can work with that.” She smiles a toothy grin.

“Think you’re gonna be okay with Cas tonight?” Dean asks Claire, “Or do I need to sit outside in the cruiser to scare him.”

She giggles, her nose scrunching up and everything.

“Don’t be so sure that would scare me,” Castiel teases back, “I was in the army.”

“What’ll you do, Cas, huh?” The green of his eyes lights up as he taunts Castiel, “March at me?”

“My daddy could probably kick your butt, Uncle Dean.” Claire decides with a smirk that earns herself a betrayed expression from Dean.

“And here I was thinking I was the cool one.” He says, tossing a wink over to Castiel.

Beings Claire seems more okay with going home, he figures it’s safe to slide out of the booth. Claire follows, climbing off of Dean’s lap.

“He also has more brother than you.” Claire adds in.

“Two is enough for me.” Dean says with a smile, looking up at Castiel, “How many you got anyway?

“Four, all older than me.” He answers.

“Ha, at least I lucked out at being the oldest.” Dean says, holding the front door for the others. Outside it’s still mostly warm.

“Guess we took too long,” Dean comments with a chuckle, “they left without me.”

“Oh no!” Claire says with a smile as big as the sun, “Guess you’ll just have to come home with us.”

“Or,” Castiel says to her with a roll of his eyes, “we can drop him off at his house.”

“Geez, you make a guy late for a Skype call and drives off without you.” There’s only adoration in Dean’s voice as he talks about his brother.

“How late did you make him?” Castiel asks as he gets Claire buckled in.

“Eh, only about an hour, but it’s not like they’re dating so I ain't too worried about it.” Dean answers, playing around with the radio settings until it’s on a classic rock station. “Worse case scenario is that Eileen gives me hell for it Tuesday at work.”

“Thank you for staying with us back there,” Castiel starts, as Dean points out the way to his place, “it’s been difficult adjusting to being a parent.”

“Yeah, welcome to the club, buddy.” Dean chuckles out, “At least when I met Ben, Lisa was around to teach me the whole parenting thing.”

“Did you not know then, that you had a child?” He inquires, hoping the topic isn’t too personal for their near-stranger status.

“Didn’t have a clue. Moved back to Lebanon three years ago and happened to meet the two. Knew right away the kid was mine, DNA test or not.”

Dean smiles at Castiel from the passenger seat, “If you need any help with the whole parenting thing, seriously, I’m just a call away.”

“I appreciate it, Dean. You’re a good man.” Castiel smiles back at him, pulling up against the curb of a nicer looking almost victorian style home.

The silence in the car borders between awkward and pleasant as the two grown men look at each other. It’s Claire who finally breaks the silence with a loud, “I HAVE TO PEE, DADDY!” 

“Good night, Cas.”

“Night, Dean.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Been a bit slow to write lately, but I've been editing my book so I think that's a good excuse :P


	7. Heaven on Earth pt 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A half chapter to show I haven't forgotten just temporarily got a life :)  
Mostly text conversations because of laziness.

Castiel groans at the sound of his phone dinging on the bedside table. The screen on his phone is way too bright and tells him that it’s Sunday (just barely).

(Unknown Number): Does the “Heaven on Earth LLC” mean anything to you?  
(Unknown Number): This is Charlie btw.  
(Unknown Number): The cop Charlie, I guess idk how many Charlie’s you know…

Castiel: Its 1 don’t you sleep

(Unknown Number): Night shift man, sleep is for the weak  
(Unknown Number): Answer the question or I come knocking on your door!

Deciding that she seems like the type who just might, he decides to sit up on his bed just enough to be half-awake. Before texting her back, he saves her number as a contact.

Castiel: I don’t know, why?

Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: I can’t really tell you, I just need to know if there’s a reason to follow the slightly suspicious breadcrumbs or if I’m barking up the wrong tree.

Castiel: I’m really not sure

Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: No bells are ringing?

Castiel: The bell for your funeral if I don’t get to go back to sleep

Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: …  
Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: Did you forget I’m a cop?

It takes everything he has not to lay back down and ignore her, but something about it does sound vaguely familiar. He can hear his dad yelling about Heaven on Earth, but he can’t remember the context of it. Maybe a book he wrote? OH!

Castiel: I think it was a company one of my dad’s ex-wives was trying to start. Maybe candles or weird soap or something? I don’t remember much besides my dad yelling about it, I was pretty young though, maybe only ten or so?

Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: And the plot thickens

Castiel: Can I go back to sleep now?

Charlie Destroyer of Sleep: Fine, but I might have more questions later. Good night, Sleeping Beauty!

****************

For the second time, Castiel is rudely awoken. This time, by Claire jumping on him, knees hitting him right in his stomach.

“It’s time to be a person!” She declares, bouncing up and down on him. As much as he hates mornings, Castiel can’t bring himself to hate waking up like this.

****************

Castiel: What in God’s name is an acuma?

Dean: *Akuma

Dean: Evilized butterfly released into the streets of Paris.

Castiel: That doesn’t clear anything up? Claire keeps talking about akumas and quamies? I’m very confused, but she is really excited.

Dean: *Kwami

Castiel: *Smartass

Dean: Okay, google Miraculous and go to the Wiki page for it. It’s a kid’s tv show, she watches it on Fridays at daycare as a treat if no one bites or hits all week.

Castiel: Thank you for the help, I tried using the google but I ended up on some website about a credit union mortgage association then an Indian political group… Usually I would go to my brother with child related things, he’s basically a child so he usually knows, but of course he’s overseas and I’d have no way to get ahold of him anyway. So just thank you.

Dean: Ha! Well it was really no problem. I’m pretty fluent in Claire and cartoons.

Dean: Bye bye little butterfly

Castiel: I don’t understand that reference

Dean: You will if she keeps talking :)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The show they're talking about is Miraculous: Tales of Ladybug & Cat Noir. It's on Netflix if you wanna check it out, for being a kid's show it's not half bad. (wow can you tell I'm a parent?)

**Author's Note:**

> If you have any interest in co-creating this story with me, hit me up on Facebook.com/KatGAuthor  
I'm open to anyone really, this is my first long fanfic so it's not like I'm one to judge.


End file.
